Hesher

Joseph Gordon-Levitt burns up the screen as the crazed, reckless, but ultimately soft-hearted psycho at the center of filmmaker Spencer Susser's weird coming-of-age drama—strutting, screaming, glowering, and delivering a stream of ripe insults for most of the running time before turning unlikely savior. Driving about in a decaying old van, Hesher is a foul-mouthed, violence-prone slacker who—for no apparent reason—fixates on T.J. (Devin Brochu), a young kid grieving for his mother, who died in a car crash. Hesher moves uninvited into T.J.'s house, lording it over the boy's emotionally devastated father (Rainn Wilson) and doting grandmother (Piper Laurie). Hesher proceeds to get T.J. in trouble by handling a bully in reckless fashion, and when the lad becomes infatuated with a kindly grocery worker (Natalie Portman), Hesher ruins it for him. Still, Hesher will inevitably become the catalyst for redemption in this dysfunctional household, leading to an over-the-top conclusion that misses precisely because of its outrageousness. Still, even though Hesher is a manipulative mess directed without a trace of style, Gordon-Levitt is definitely worth watching. A strong optional purchase. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include outtakes (29 min.), a behind-the-scenes featurette (7 min.), deleted scenes (7 min.), an “Air Traffic” outtake (2 min.), a brief “Teaser Channels” segment, a sketch gallery, and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a flawed film with a powerful central performance.] (F. Swietek)